For the past five years, a number of young Catholics have taken part in Thematic Retreats, offered by the Diocesan Youth Office and Covenant Teen Young Adults. Many have attended one retreat that led to a second. Then there’s Antonio Tienda, a member of St. Ann’s Church in Bovina. Even two retreats weren’t enough for him and three might be too few as well.
There are times when a room or a home needs a fresh look, or an extreme makeover. The same goes for facilities at our Catholic Churches—sometimes the look needs to be freshened up. That’s exactly what has happened to the newly-named Dwelling, the youth and young adult facility in the basement of St. Thomas the Apostle Church. The new facility was reopened Feb. 2 when
Editor’s Note: In lieu of a conversation with Bishop Patrick J. Zurek for this issue of The West Texas Catholic, we present the homily he gave Jan. 22 during the annual diocesan Respect Life Mass at St. Mary’s Church, Amarillo. During the Christmas Season we always read Isaiah, which like St. John’s Gospel, is filled with the comparison of “Light and Darkness”.
June 12, 1949. The date is symbolic for Catholics in Northeast Amarillo, as the first Catholic faith community was formed, a community that would become St. Laurence Church in 1955 and St. Laurence Cathedral in 1974. The June 12, 1949 issue of the Amarillo Register, the diocesan newspaper, reported that “St. Lucien’s Chapel on the campus of Price College, Amarillo,
Established: According to diocesan records, St. Laurence Church was created as a parish on May 16, 1955. St. Laurence Church was designated by the Holy See as the cathedral of the Diocese of Amarillo on Nov. 10, 1974. After extensive renovation, St. Laurence Cathedral was dedicated on Oct. 5, 1975. The first pastor of St. Laurence Church was Father Leroy T. Matthiesen,